24 September | New York
What can we celebrate? What can we challenge?
A Laudato Si’ and Carbon Tracker panel at Climate Week NYC 2026. With overshoot of 1.5°C now called unavoidable and a stable climate recognised as a legal obligation, we ask what the Season of Creation gives us to celebrate, what it demands we challenge, and whether honest realism or optimism better serves the fight ahead.
THEMES FOR DISCUSSION
- Limiting overshoot
- UNEP’s September 2026 report: at least 1.8°C even in the most optimistic future. “There are no good
outcomes above 1.5°C.”
- UNEP’s September 2026 report: at least 1.8°C even in the most optimistic future. “There are no good
- A stable climate as a human right
- The ICJ advisory opinion of July 2025, endorsed by the UN General Assembly 141–8 in May 2026,
with the COP31 host among the abstentions.
- The ICJ advisory opinion of July 2025, endorsed by the UN General Assembly 141–8 in May 2026,
- A decade of COPs without “fossil fuels”
- From Paris to COP30, outcomes that consistently omitted the phrase, and the Santa Marta coalition of
the willing formed in response.
- From Paris to COP30, outcomes that consistently omitted the phrase, and the Santa Marta coalition of
- The growing cost of delay
- Over 35,000 excess deaths across Europe in the summer 2026 heatwaves; seven of nine planetary
boundaries already exceeded.
- Over 35,000 excess deaths across Europe in the summer 2026 heatwaves; seven of nine planetary
- Optimism or realism?
- “What if we stop pretending?” against communities that rise to the occasion, and Laudato Si’s reminder
that the cry of the Earth is the cry of the poor.
- “What if we stop pretending?” against communities that rise to the occasion, and Laudato Si’s reminder
SPEAKERS
